Top Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

I believe that the object of beauty depends on the type of person. Beauty cannot be tied down to one object, idea, or person. To me, beauty is technology. Technology is the giver. It gives me the ability to send you this essay.

Society gives an idea of beauty that promotes the purchase of make-up, jewelry, clothes, etc. Companies give consumers the fear of not being beautiful, and it gives the solution of being beautiful by buying their merchandise. For example: Listerine commercials show the germs that the human mouth stores. It gives consumers the fear of dirty germs in their mouth and it shows a clean mouth after a rinsing of Listerine.

Take a look at a commercial on television. If it’s a commercial of teeth or disease, then it will have the dangers and germs listed. Then, the solution is their product. Alcohol commercials show regular people being blown away by their beverage, or shy men gaining enough courage to ask a girl out at the bar by drinking their product. It is a manipulation of beauty on an economic level.

Society has been shifted to view technology as beautiful. Things such as Macs, iPod Touches, and iPhones. In fact, all Apple merchandise is considered beautiful because of the sleek and smooth design. Cars such as Lamborghinis, Mustangs, and Bentleys are sleek and therefore considered to be beautiful. That is why these cars are more expensive than regular old Corollas and minivans. More people want to buy cars that are sleek–not rough.

Technology can make movies more graphically beautiful. It can make supermodels more beautiful by making them look thinner or by changing their entire body structure. Look at the computer you are viewing this on. Most desktops are shaped to have no edges. The mouse is smoothly shaped with almost no edges.

Dancing is considered to be beautiful because of the movements that are nearly symmetrical. It is movement at its finest. Music is beautiful because of the mixture of instruments and words. Facial features mixed with body structure are two of the main parts of society’s beauty. Commercials for Target and Macy’s never show large or “ugly” people. All of them have white teeth and smooth body structures. If a commercial has any people that are large or “ugly” then they are celebrities, who are considered socially beautiful.

Sometimes beauty cannot be a good thing. The beauty of war, for instance, has intrigued many young adults in this nation. They see the commercials for the Army and the Marines, and how the men and women in the commercial are beautiful. Their movements are beautiful. The muscular structure of the men is beautiful. The young adults see the people in the commercial and make goals to become them.

In my Humanities class, my fellow classmates had to be blind for a day at school. Beauty is not a visual object of make-up or jewelry to the blind. Beauty to the blind takes the form of help. This beauty comes from close friends or even complete strangers acting as seeing eyes. But not all people were willing to help.

I wasn’t blind that day. I had chosen to be mute for fear of people taking advantage of my blindness. It wasn’t hard for me to be mute because of my quiet nature, but I was observing. I was able to see my blind classmates get tripped and pushed by other people. I can see how it is difficult not to trip someone who is a complete jerk, but it is still wrong no matter who you trip. Most people helped by leading the blind to their classes or getting through hallways.

In one instance, most of my blind classmates were walking in the same hallway. They started bumping into walls and each other. It was weird seeing them raise their arms trying to get an understanding of their surroundings and bumping into walls. Having to be mute wasn’t as easy as it seemed because of the disadvantages. People took advantage of my muteness by saying, “If you’re gay, don’t say anything.” The assignment has made my classmates appreciate their sight more because of the disabilities of blindness. They have been made to view outer beauty and not hear inner beauty.

I believe that beauty is seen more on the outside than the inside in this modern-day society. Kids are exposed to this type of beauty as soon as they can read and understand television commercials. They are given the idea of beauty as based on body structure and facial features. This is almost like the book “1984”, where children are taught to see Big Brother as good and Goldstein as bad.

Beauty can come in many forms. Physical structure and the ability to socialize are the most seeked for beauty. For women, this beauty is curvature. For men, this beauty is muscular. If we can change from this, then more independent thoughts of beauty can arise and the face of beauty won’t be as uniformal.

Essay of the Week

On August 28, 1963, Benita Porter went with her mother to attend the March on Washington. It was during Dr. King’s spellbinding message of hope, love, and the universality of mankind that Ms. Porter was inspired by the belief that words—her own words—could arouse passion, change minds, and bring about social change. Click here to read her essay.

What Students Believe

Throughout the school year, young people around the world write statements of belief as a classroom exercise. And thousands of those students have submitted their essays to our series. Click here to read a sampling of what young people believe.